The show announced in its finale Saturday that Ellis-Brown, the owner and founder of Ellis Infinity LLC, would take home the $25,000 prize.

The "Shark Tank"-like reality show followed 18 entrepreneurs, whittling down the competition over the course of three months. The show's judges praised Ellis-Brown's hibiscus tea made from a Jamaican family recipe, but critiqued her clash flow and fashion style, according to a news release.

Ellis-Brown was the only competitor from Detroit; the rest were from the East Coast, she said.

“I was intimidated, I can’t lie,” she said. “That also pumped me up … It was like an underdog kind of thing I felt coming in.”

Ellis-Brown built her business from a $50 loan to a 4,000-square-foot bottling plant across from the Russell Industrial Center. Ellis Island Tropical Tea is carried in Meijer Inc. stores, Whole Foods Markets, The Hudson Café and other outlets. Ellis-Brown started a trial run at the end of January selling her tea in three airports around the country (Chicago O’Hare, St. Louis Lambert and Charlotte Douglas) and will stock them in all Michigan Kroger Co. stores by the end of March.

With her winnings, Ellis-Brown said she plans to invest in a new label maker. She also wants to work on brightening up the labels and making them “pop,” hoping to become a national brand within five years.

The entrepreneur, who watched the finale during an event at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, said that moment of joy and support when she was named as the winner was why she did it. “I feel uplifted by my city,” she said. “It gave me a little more fuel to keep pushing and it gave me a new energy. It was like a refresh button that was pressed.”